Dementia diary: a personal and professional journal

Soc Work. 2004 Jul;49(3):451-60. doi: 10.1093/sw/49.3.451.

Abstract

This article is not traditional social work writing, because it is in the form of a memoir. It offers a window into lived experience, from which most professional writing is more distant. It explores the last year of life of an elderly woman, seen through the eyes of her daughter-in-law, who is a social worker and social work educator. The article chronicles the day-to-day experiences of progressive memory loss and the challenges of caregiving. Social work can develop similar narratives of other life experiences that can increase its practitioners' understanding and wisdom.

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease* / nursing
  • Caregivers
  • Humans
  • Narration*
  • Parent-Child Relations
  • Social Work*
  • United States